The Wellington Community Association hosted an all-candidates event at Highline Hall at the Wellington Arena on Monday evening.
There were close to 200 people in person, along with another 65 online.
Jennifer Armstrong of the WCA was the moderator for the event.
Each candidate began with three minutes to introduce themselves and showcase what they would bring to Queen’s Park.
At the event were Green Candidate Lori Borthwick, Liberal Dave O’Neil, Amanda Roberston of the NDP, and the PC’s Tyler Allsopp.
The questions asked by moderators Armstrong focused on:
- IMPROVING MEDICAL SERVICES AND DOCTOR RECRUITMENT
- DEALING WITH DONALD TRUMP, TARIFFS, AND BUY LOCAL CAMPAIGNS
- AFFORDABILITY
- DIGNIFIED HOUSING OPTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
- EDUCATION CHALLENGES, INCLUDING POST-SECONDARY
- INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES AND HELPING MUNICIPALITIES
- ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ADD/CLOSING STATEMENTS
Dave O’Neil spoke about the issue of housing and what he calls the failure of the Ford government.
Audio Player“Ontario is building fewer homes annually than it did 50 years ago. In 1974, with half of today’s population, Ontario built nearly 110,000 homes. Almost 40,000 more than we’re building now.”
The Green Party’s Lori Borthwick laid out a plan in regards to the type of housing needed.
Audio Player“If you build a house that’s less than 2,000 square feet, within existing urban boundaries, the Green Party would lift that development charge off of that house and there would be no land transfer tax.”
On the topic of infrastructure, PC Tyler Allsopp trumpeted the Ford government’s investment in capital projects in Prince Edward County, Belleville, and Quinte West.
Audio Player“Whether it’s the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, for which $18.3 million was recently received for Wellington, for upgrades to their water treatment plant. Also, the housing-enabling core services stream. That was something you (Prince Edward County) were the recipient of, $20 million for County Road 49.”
Lori Borthwick also spoke to infrastructure.
Audio Player“We’re here in The County, they want to build a $300 million water treatment plant. The government of Doug Ford gave you $18.3 million, leaving you with $282 million.”
The discussion surrounding education and post-secondary schooling came forward, centred around Loyalist College and the recent cuts in programming and staffing levels.
Dave O’Neil says the school needs committed funding.
Audio Player“If Loyalist closed there would be dire consequences for our entire region. Providing staffing for local businesses, transit revenue. Loyalist students come to Belleville and stay in the area after graduation.”
Amanda Roberston, who is a school board trustee, says since 2018 the province has lost 5,000 classroom educators.
Audio Player” … and while funding for education is up overall per pupil funding, when indexed to inflation, is down $1,500 a student per year. School boards are having to make really tough decisions.”
The Green’s Borthwick says that Ontario is funded at 57 per cent of other provinces when it comes to per student money for post-secondary education.
Audio Player“Community colleges, the thing about them that was amazing, is they are training people in the communities that they live in, so they they don’t have to spend all that money. The biggest expense is not tuition when you go to school, it’s living in an apartment, it’s groceries.”
Health care is something all too close to Amanda Roberston, who says her husband is a physician. She says he is asked to wear many hats.
Audio Player“We’re asking of our doctors to not only pull together a struggling system, but to take on patients who are increasingly complex. Our doctors that are in training centres like my husband, he also is expected to train the next generation of doctors. So we have an issue when we’re burning out our doctors.
PC Tyler Allsopp says similar to the door-knocking in the fall, health care continues to be one of the most important issues to residents in the Bay of Quinte riding, but also across the province. He says we need to agree on the facts before we can agree on the solutions.
Audio Player“Ontario has the shortest average wait time to access health care (across Canada). We also have the highest patient attachment rate of any province in Canada. Now, we know that is not good enough, because in rural areas like ours, that rate does drop off precipitously, we’re about 72 per cent in this area.”
There was discussion around tariffs and international trade with the United States.
Amanda Roberston says the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has come out with a great way to support Canada, Ontario, and the Bay of Quinte
Audio Player“The OFA, they included a stat that showed that if we had families, households across Ontario spend just $10 more a week on locally grown food, we would be infusing $2.4 billion into our local economy and creating 10,000 new agriculture jobs.”
PC Tyler Allsopp says the new Trump administration and tariffs are front of mind these days. He says the average vehicle crosses the Canada/US border six times before it is produced.
Audio Player“The challenge is that these tariffs came through and threatened about 450,000 jobs just in Ontario. We’re the number one export destination to 17 US states, we’re the number two export destination to 11 others.”
Liberal Dave O’Neil blasted the Premier for sending Ontarians to the polls.
Audio Player“Ford has 16 months left in his mandate. He should be fighting the tariffs. He quit his job just when the people of Ontario needed him the most.”
You can listen to the entire debate below
PART 1
Audio PlayerPART 2 – first piece of audio is the question leading into the remainder of the meeting
Audio PlayerAudio Player
(l-r) Green Party candidate Lori Borthwick, Liberal Dave O’Neil, NDP Amanda Robertson, and PC Tyler Allsopp in Highline Hall during an all candidates evening on Monday February 10, 2025 (Photo: Tim Durkin/ Quinte News)
